


I'm not jealous

by homiehoran



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Boyfriends, Fluff, Jealous Niall, Jealousy, M/M, Side Liam Payne/Sophia Smith - Freeform, high school ziall, like EXTREME fluff, side Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-03
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-09-21 19:51:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9563867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/homiehoran/pseuds/homiehoran
Summary: “Niall, I need to borrow your boyfriend.”“Excuse me?”





	

**Author's Note:**

> Yo this is just cause Niall and Zayn make me feel some type of way. Also, high school AU's of Ziall is one of the treasures in this world. I accidentally made a short blurb of thoughts into 8k words ahhaha NICE. I love my kids.

“Niall, I need to borrow your boyfriend.”

“Excuse me?” Niall pauses mid-bite in eating his sandwich and looks up at Louis with a raised eyebrow. Of course, Niall knows exactly who Louis is referring to: Zayn Malik and he is not dating him thank you very much. If he really thinks about it, everyone at this table probably knows who Louis is referring to. Niall can only pretend to play-dumb for a full two seconds before he retaliates with a, “He’s not my boyfriend.”

Louis rolls his eyes. 

Niall and Zayn are not dating, no. It just so happens that the two boys have shared a special bond with a each other over the course of a grand total of 3 and a half years. It’s really not their fault that they have a close relationship. Niall cold probably point out that Louis and Harry have an even closer bond than him and Zayn. But from the way that Louis was now looking at Niall with a determined expression, he decided to keep his remarks to himself. 

Niall glances around the table to see if anyone else reacted to Louis’ sudden statement, but everyone was preoccupied with whatever they do during lunch time. Harry, being in his weird healthy phase, was reading his stupid fitness magazine which ultimately causes Harry to absolutely insist on commenting on Niall’s terrible choice of diet. 

As much as Niall loved Harry, he wouldn’t hesitate to demolish him if he heard another sentence starting with “Kelly from Healthy Habits says…”

Niall nudges Harry’s shin from across the table and clears his throat loudly. Clearly disturbed from his precious Kelly time, Harry makes a strangled noise and throws his mostly empty yogurt cup at him. Before Niall can react, he has a few drops of strawberry flavored yogurt stuck in his blonde hair. 

“Haz!” 

“Please, be nice,” says Liam as he distractedly looks up from his notes. He was doing some last minute studying for his French class while also trying to make sure that this lunch table did not start another food fight. Niall’s backpack still vaguely smells like ham (Louis’ doing).

Naturally, Louis’ need to be in the center of attention spikes. Snapping his fingers impatiently in front of a distracted Niall’s face, he declares loudly, “Neil, this is a serious matter. I need to borrow him for a few days,” Niall gives him an unimpressed look as Louis adds, “maybe a week.”

“Why do you have such a sudden need for Zayn? You know he’s coming in a few minutes from music class?” he changes his tone as if he was talking to a lost freshman, “The music class is down the North Hall, passed the auditorium if you’re lost.” Harry snorts and joins in on the teasing much to Louis’ growing annoyance. 

“If you need anyone to help lead you there, I’ll have you know that I work part-time as a tourguide on weekends” Louis just shoots Harry a very un-Louis-like glare - which was strange considering that Harry was usually his favorite - and continues talking as if the curly-headed boy never spoke. Niall figures he’d ask Louis about it later. 

“I need to conduct a very important experiment that involves his help.”

“Sure, Lou. By all means, take him. He smells kinda weird anyways,” Louis looks pretty satisfied with his answer and Niall takes it as a win. Suddenly, he feels someone sink into the seat on the bench next to him making Niall smile softly. That seat (and smile) was always reserved for only one person.

“Who smells bad?” Zayn and best friend of almost 4 years asks as he buries his hand into his backpack to take out his lunch. He then turns to Niall to graze his fingers under his chin with a soft “Alright, babe?” before handing a half of his sandwich to Niall without question. Niall nods with a prize-winning smile and nuzzles his head into Zayn’s shoulder as a thank you before ditching his own sandwich. Niall had learned by the end of freshman year that no sandwich tastes as good as a Zayn sandwich. 

He takes a bite and chews thoughtfully for a moment (Zayn added extra pickles today) before answering. “Oh, nothing, Louis was just telling about his weird-ass “experiment” he wants to do. What is your weird experiment even about?”

“Niall!” said boy furrows his eyebrows at the sudden yell to see Louis pointing an accusing spork to Niall. Without looking up from his French notes, Liam, the ever-so-responsible, takes away the dangerous plastic and instead, uses it to eat a spoonful (a sporkful?) of his salad. Niall takes a few moments to be amazed at Liam’s skills before Louis is talking again. “I think this is something that I should not go into detail now.” Niall shrugs.

“Oh, also, Zayn? Niall thinks you smell weird.” Zayn makes a hurt noise and Niall deems Louis a traitor. He thinks about swiping the spork away from Liam to maybe poke at Louis’ dumb face until his smug smirk is gone.

“Is that so? I would like my jacket back if you think I smell so bad. I’m sure Harry would appreciate my beautiful clothing more than you." At the sound of his name, Harry seems to agree quickly and drops his treasured magazine to reach over the table with grabby hands towards Niall. Pouting, Niall quickly retracts as far away from Harry’s long arms as he could without falling off the bench. Zayn laughs and wraps a hand around Niall’s waist to steady him before batting away Harry’s hands. “Alright, that’s enough. Off, curly, off.”

Niall grins under Zayn’s protection and sticks his tongue out at Harry who looks utterly devastated that Zayn’s jacket is staying on Niall. Harry desperately scans the table for something to throw at Niall, but before Harry can even reach for an empty tupperware, the famous spork is thrown into his hair by none other than Liam.

“I swear, if another person even thinks about throwing another item, I will end all of you,” he says as he finally abandons his notes to help a struggling Harry retrieve the spork that is now lodged deeply inside his curls. 

“You better think I smell nice, Horan,” Niall watches as Zayn reaches over to zip up his black jacket before tugging the hood over Niall’s messy hair. Niall scrunches his nose in attempt to stop the blush threatening to spill onto his cheeks and decides to bury his face into Zayn’s shoulder instead, happy to have Zayn’s attention on him.

Louis scrunches his nose in fake-disgust at the two before turning to Harry who is in the middle of breaking the spork into very small pieces with Liam’s notebook. “Hazza, you’re giving me a ride home right? After practice? Mum has the car today.” Niall tries not to writhe in happiness when he feels Zayn slip his cold fingers under Niall’s shirt. 

“Hands are cold.” Niall mumbles, but he does nothing to stop it. Zayn hums and traces patterns over Niall’s exposed skin on his hipbone.

“Oooh, I can’t. Sorry, love. Perrie’s mom is taking me and her home today. We have to have this weird family dinner with our moms. It’s strange,” Harry says apologetically. Niall watches as Louis’ face flickers disappointment before he narrows his eyes slightly and shrugs it off. 

Niall isn’t lying when he thinks that literally everyone in the senior class knows that Louis has been very much in love with Harry ever since Freshman year. He’s pretty sure that Harry is also in love with Louis, but neither of them have done anything to make it official. Niall thinks it’s stupidly cute how Louis and Harry are so obvious in their love for each other sometimes. He snuggles further into Zayn’s shoulder and intertwines their fingers under the table.

“Whatever, I know that my trusty friend Leemo will give me a ride home?” It seems like Louis’ luck isn’t all that good today when Liam’s girlfriend, Sophia, shows up at the table. Liam brightens up about 8 times than usual and leans in to give her a kiss on the cheek, immediately falling into a conversation with her.

Niall feels Zayn snicker as Louis sighs dramatically, making Liam remember that he was in mid-conversation “Oh, yes. Yeah. Sure, Lou. You can carpool with me and Soph if you want.”

At this moment, Niall suddenly feels extremely offended and he jolts up from his comfortable position on Zayn’s shoulder to confront Louis “Hey, why didn’t you ask me for a ride? I would have gladly taken you!” Niall looks to Zayn as backup and Zayn nods in agreement, pulling Niall back closer to him. Louis makes a face.

“If I had to carpool with a couple, it would be Li and his lovely girlfriend” he says as-a-matter-of-factly. “No offense, Ni, but you and Z are always all over each other and it’s pretty nauseating to watch.” Harry laughs his very high-pitched laugh before he chokes on one of his grapes causing a smug, yet fond, smile to erupt on Louis’ face. Niall once again feels properly offended and he sits up to defend himself, but Zayn shushes him and insistently pulls Niall back in while Niall mumbles his comebacks into Zayn’s shoulder. 

Louis continues to look smug until Perrie plops down in the seat next to Harry. Niall frowns as he watches Louis watching Harry engaging in a conversation with Perrie. Niall takes away Harry’s bag of grapes to hopefully show that he understands why Louis is mad. 

“Ow, Louis. Why are you like this?” Liam complains from next to him. He rubs at his shin and glares at Louis, but softens when Sophia coos and kisses his cheek. Louis huffs and slumps in his seat and then probably kicks Liam’s shin again for no particular reason at all.

 

“I think I will have a ride home with you and Zayn if that’s okay?” Niall pulls a clean shirt over his head and nods his head in goodbye to a few guys from his soccer team. He turns around to face Louis.

“And what happened to Liam and Dani, huh?” Niall asks as he laces up his sneakers and stuffs his uniform into his sports bag. He glances at himself in the reflection of his phone to adjust the snapback on his head. Where did he put his jacket again?

Louis scoffs and and crosses his arms, leaning against a set of lockers glaring at something behind Niall. Niall follows Louis’ gaze and finds Harry having a chat with Perrie who is still dressed up in her cheerleader uniform. Niall chuckles quietly at Louis’ reaction and slams his locker shut. “Is she even allowed to be in the boys’ locker room?”

“You know, she doesn’t even need to be in her stupid cheerleading uniform anymore because-” Louis raises his voice a few notches louder for emphasis, “-practice is over!” A few guys who are not Harry glance Louis’ way with confused expressions and Louis flicks his bangs out of his face in irritation. “I’m just saying.”

Niall gives Louis a knowing look before wrapping himself up in Zayn’s jacket, bringing the sleeve up to face to give it a not-so-secret sniff (It smells like watermelon gum, cigarettes, and Zayn. Niall fucking loves it). Louis’ voice cuts Niall out of his thoughts.

“Do you even know if he washes that jacket?” His face burns a little, but if Louis noticed, he doesn’t say anything. 

“Shut up, I’m your ride home.”

The two walk over to the parking lot and Louis refuses to tell Niall what the secret “experiment” is about. By the time they find Zayn peacefully reading a book near the car, Niall gives up prodding Louis in favor of climbing onto Zayn’s back. 

“Hi, Z!” Zayn laughs loudly and hoists Niall up by his thighs with one hand, his book now shoved into his backpack. Zayn turns his head and kisses his cheek twice, causing Niall to make a happy noise and kiss his cheek back. Niall’s snapback is taken off of his head and is instead place atop of Zayn’s (not that Niall minds).

"You looked so gross during practice today, babes." 

"You're grosser," Niall protests fondly as Zayn walks them over to Zayn’s car. Louis is still unnoticed by Zayn, but thankfully he doesn’t tease them for anything. Yet. Zayn drops Niall and their backpacks back onto the ground and leans him against the car. Niall curls his hand around the back of Zayn's neck, also forgetting about his friend’s existence while Zayn places his hand on the car by Niall's head, caging him in.

"All sweaty and running around in your little uniform," Zayn brushes hair out of Niall's face, looking pleased as Niall's cheeks become darker by the second. Zayn lowers his voice as he continues talking and Niall gets that pleasant, swoopy feeling in his tummy, "You always look so good in red." He remembers the first time Zayn saw him in his soccer uniform. There's no use in hiding his flushed cheeks this time. 

“Alright, that's enough. Jesus Christ, you two are sickening. Absolutely sickening," Louis voice shocks both of them back into realization. Zayn looks a bit more surprised as Niall just looks slightly grumpy when Zayn pulls away to fist bump Louis in hello. Niall makes sure to sit extra close to Harry tomorrow in return for the rude interruption.

"Hey bro. Sorry, didn't see you there," When Niall gets a good look at Zayn, he notices he seems to be properly embarrassed. Satisfied, Niall rubs his warm cheeks with the back of his hand and smiles sheepishly at Louis.

"Louis wants a ride home," Niall states to Zayn as he leans up on his toes to retrieve his snapback, ignoring the small whine that came from the other boy.

"Actually do you mind if I stick around and hang with you two tonight? We have very important matters to talk about," Zayn raises his eyebrows at Louis’ reply, turning to Niall with a questioning glance.

Niall shrugs and twists his snapback to face forward so that he can yank his hood up. A lightbulb clicks in his head when he remembers what Louis is talking about. “Oh! The “experiment”!” he shakes his head and points a finger at Louis while clicking his tongue. “That little fucker won’t tell me a single detail about it!”

“You know, Louis. I think Harry would want to experiment with you rather than me,” Zayn teases with a wink. He smirks when Louis’ cheekbones slowly dust with pink. He nudges him playfully, dodging Louis’ attempt to attack him. 

“Anyways,” Louis clears his throat loudly and crosses his arms defiantly, “Whose house are we going to? Nialler’s or Zayn’s?” 

Immediately, Niall perks up and leans down to dig through his backpack in search of Zayn’s car keys. “Zayn’s! His mom is cooking good dinner tonight!” Niall’s voice starts to edge with concern as he struggles to find the keys.

“Whatever you want, babes,” Zayn says as he rests one hand on Niall’s waist, the other disappearing into Niall’s back pocket to snatch the keys. With a surprised noise, Niall narrows his eyes at the keys in Zayn’s hands and then bites his shoulder before climbing into the passenger seat.

Later on the road, Louis is forced to witness Zayn and Niall hold hands over Niall’s thigh the whole way to the house. Louis says that it’s sickening, but Niall just blushes when Zayn makes a point of kissing each and every knuckle.

 

Much to Niall’s disbelief, Louis insists that the boys all eat before he reveals his big plan. After 2 and a half plates of dinner and a lovely conversation with Louis and Zayn’s entire family, the three boys make their way up to Zayn’s room where Niall is practically vibrating in curiosity. He almost explodes when Louis makes a show of taking off his shoes in an agonizingly slow pace. Niall has one of his legs draped over Zayn’s thigh as they sit on a small couch in his room and taps his fingers impatiently over Zayn’s hand.

“Louis, I swear to God if you don’t-”

“Zayn, I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend,” and Niall was not expecting that at all. He kinda chokes on the chips he’s eating for his after-dinner snack and is grateful when Zayn rubs his back soothingly.

While Niall is still suffocating from the chip betrayer, Zayn shakes his head for a second at Niall before redirecting his attention to Louis. “What’s this about, then?”

Louis is quick to respond. “Nothing!” maybe too quick. Zayn watches as Louis starts to angrily blush and yup. Zayn knows. 

“This doesn’t have to do with Harry and Perrie spending some good, quality time together recently, is it?”

Stubbornly, Louis denies this. “No! absolutely not. I just- it’s for you and Niall!” Louis stutters out. By now, Niall has recovered from his chip-attack and him and Zayn share an unamused look. 

“What do you mean it’s for me and Zayn?” Zayn nods in agreement and rubs at Niall’s shoulder, Niall curling up even further into Zayn’s body. “Really, Lou. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone knows that you’re the one who’s jealous.”

“Oh, like you aren’t jealous too!” Louis snaps, falling back on Zayn’s bed to sigh loudly at the ceiling in distress. Niall makes a confused face while Zayn suddenly looks very alarmed. He looks Niall suspiciously, frowning slightly. Niall shakes his head and kisses his Zayn’s cheek in reassurance making Zayn relax against Niall. 

“Yes, Louis I am totally jealous of Harry and Perrie. Have you seen those curls? Who wouldn’t want a piece of that?” Niall says dramatically as he raises his hand up to rest against his forehead, pretending to faint against Zayn’s shoulder after swooning.

Louis makes a frustrated noise at Niall’s little act and sits up on the bed, running his hands wilding through his already messy hair. “No, you twat. I mean of me and Zayn!”

Zayn snorts as he traces a pattern onto the exposed skin near Niall’s collarbone, pressing a kiss to his temple, making the boy sigh. “Do elaborate, Lewis.” 

Louis glares at the two boys on the couch and suddenly gets up to stomp his way over to them. Niall sits up from his position as Louis takes a seat on the other side of Zayn, mimicking Niall when he leans his head on Zayn’s shoulder. Niall’s bottom lip juts out slightly as Louis wraps Zayn’s arm across Louis’ shoulder, Zayn looking down at him with an amused stare. “You should just come to terms with your feelings and accept the fact you and Zayn are totally in love,” Louis says with a smirk as he watches Niall curl his hands into a fist. Niall huffs and goes red in the face, making him look like a really angry tomato. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Niall claims as Louis pets at Zayn’s perfect jawline. Niall tries not to claw at Louis’ hand because no. Bad Louis. He looks to Zayn as if to tell him what are you doing, Zayn? Come here, but Zayn only smirks like he’s somewhat challenging him. Niall just holds his chin high in the air and looks away with a grumpy expression. 

“Let me get this straight. So, you wouldn’t mind if me and Zayn dated?” Louis asks and Niall can just hear Louis’ voice dripping with smugness. 

Zayn clears his throat. “Pretend dating,”

Niall glares at him with all the anger he can muster, “Yeah, thanks for the clarification, Z.”

“Atta boy! Listen, I’m just trying to prove that Niall is in fact in love with you and is one jealous Irishman. Don’t you remember what happened when you and Liam went on that trip to bond over fish for a few days and Nialler here went crazy after like… half an hour and he couldn’t call you and he when you guys came home he basically teared you away from poor ol’ Li and then-”

Niall shakes his head repeatedly as if trying to make the memory go away and whines, tugging Zayn closer to him while simultaneously pushing Louis away. Niall thinks that Zayn looks far too amused by this whole situation, so Niall flicks his ear before reattaching himself to his rightful place under Zayn’s arm. 

“You can borrow Zayn. I don’t mind at all,” Niall chooses to ignore Zayn and Louis’ snickering and calms down a little when Zayn tangles his fingers through the hair at the base of his neck. 

Louis claps his hands together in success. “Lovely! Think we should start lessons now. maybe even call Liam over. He’d love to see this”

“Sure, why don’t you ring him up?” Niall gapes at Zayn, feeling betrayed and smacks his arm gently. Louis goes over to Zayn’s bed waiting for Liam to pick up his phone. Louis bubbles up in excitement when he does and he demands Liam to leave everything and walk across the street into Zayn’s house at once. Niall really hopes that Liam is busy with his girlfriend instead of coming to witness a grumpy little Niall entertain his friends.

“I can’t believe you’re actually agreeing to this.”

“Why?” Zayn beams at the blonde boy, poking at his side despite Niall’s half-hearted attempts of pushing him away. Zayn takes this opportunity to lean in close to Niall’s ear, his voice soft, “Are you jealous, sunshine?” Niall proceeds to flick his nose, but begrudgingly kisses him right after when Zayn expectantly points to his cheek.

Less than 15 minutes later, Liam walks into Zayn’s room with little bit of an annoyed expression and plops down on the worn-out couch with Niall and Zayn. “Louis Tomlinson, this better be the best science experiment on the goddamn planet. I just hung up on a skype call with my girlfriend. Do you know how important that skype call was?” 

“Why have skype sex when you can just go to her house you kinky fuck?” Louis says. Niall hands a spluttering Liam a cushion which is then launched at Louis a few moments later. Niall giggles as Louis falls to the ground and sits up with his hair tousled in a few wild directions. Liam looks pretty satisfied with his work as he leans back onto the couch with a loud sigh.

“Zayn, please tell me why I am in your household listening to this irrelevant plank?” Liam complains. Niall clicks his tongue in disapproval as Louis aims to make his hair look presentable again. 

“Oh, Louis is jealous of Perrie and Harry so now he’s pretending to date me,” Zayn states plainly. Liam hums in understanding, giving a blushing Louis a sympathetic look. Louis shakes his head almost forcefully and drags Zayn up to stand with him in front of the couch.

“I’m trying to prove that Niall is a super jealous person,” Louis claims in his defense. Niall aims to throw another pillow at him, but unfortunately, Louis probably saw this one coming since he dodged the attack.

Liam shakes his head and opens his arms while cooing at Niall like a child. Niall defiantly chooses to ignore him before giving in after one look at Liam’s soft and welcoming eyes. “Come here, Nialler. You don’t have to be jealous of Louis and Zayn. You know that Zayner loves you,” Niall pouts, but goes into Liam’s arms and the two watch as Louis directs Zayn on how to be a proper pretend boyfriend. 

“Liam, I need you to make sure that Zayn and I look like a believable couple,” Louis commands. Liam tries not to laugh as he salutes Louis, then turns to lift a grumpy Niall’s hand up to salute him as well. “Liam is just your average spectator on the street and Niall is your whiny child.”

“Heyyy-”

“Alright, get on with it then, Lou.” 

With that, Louis intertwines his fingers with Zayn’s and rests his cheek on his chest. Louis’ voice goes high a few octaves up and Niall cracks a smile despite the fact that he is touching Zayn. “Oh, Zayn. You are so muscular and fit and attractive. Good thing you’re my boyfriend.” That certainly knocks Niall's smile right off his face and goes back to looking quite glum while Liam laughs a little too hard at the show.

To Niall’s absolute horror, Zayn goes along with the whole skit. He dramatically pets Louis’ hair, if only to mess it up further and Niall notices that Zayn thickens his accent when he speaks again. “Loueh’. You know the way to mah’ heart!”

“Good!” Louis grins in approval, then pulls away from Zayn to talk to Liam again. “Okay, now Liam pretend to be Harry and Niall is your lovely girlfriend Perrie,” Louis makes a face full of disgust as he goes up close and personal into Liam’s space with a glare (a familiar glare that Niall witnessed earlier during lunch). “Harry! Look at my boyfriend! It’s Zayn! That’s right. The Zayn Malik. Are you jealous? Do you like me better than Perrie? Hah!” 

With a strangled noise, Zayn is then dragged over to join the invade-Liam’s-personal-bubble show. Louis gets a hand on Zayn’s face and Niall sits up with an unamused glare. 

“Look at his chiseled jawline! Look at that chin!” Louis puts a hand under Zayn’s chin to emphasize his words as Liam sputters a few laughs behind his hand. Niall thinks that Zayn kind of looks like a cute guppy with his face being all squished up like that. It might be pretty adorable. 

By this point, Louis is still yelling loudly at Liam who is still acting like a Harry substitute. “Look at those lashes! It’s longer than your hair! Your annoyingly long hair! And your annoyingly cute face! And your annoying everything!” 

Liam bursts out laughing after a while and Niall even joins in which may have been a mistake. Louis turns at the sound of Niall’s laugh and angles Zayn’s face. 

“Look at those lips, man.” Niall quits his laughing in favor of looking at Louis with a challenging glance. Zayn looks a little alarmed, but it’s a hard to tell due to his face being used as a prop. “I could just…” Louis moves Zayn’s face so close that their noses were almost touching. Louis glancing at Niall with a smirk, tilting his head slightly. “Kiss him-”

“Okay! That’s enough,” Niall rips away Louis’ grip on Zayn’s chin and starts to get up with a clenched fist because how dare he?

Louis looks pretty damn satisfied with his job and Niall could deck him in the face if his first priority wasn’t Zayn. He ignores Liam and Louis’ laughing to pull Zayn back down onto the couch, immediately launching himself onto Zayn’s lap.

“I told you,” Louis says as he watches Zayn rests his hands on Niall’s waist to calm him down. Niall looks about ready to kill Louis, but Louis can’t find the will to feel scared as Niall snuggles himself into Zayn’s shirt possessively. 

Niall is still trying to claim his spot Zayn’s lap as Zayn starts to chuckles and mumble calming nonsense directly into his ear. “Practice time over! Louis, Liam out! You can come back tomorrow!” Niall clings onto Zayn’s shirt and looks around for something to throw at Louis.

Liam is still giggling as he gets up to leave. “See you later, Ni,” he says affectionately with a kiss on the head and a ruffle to his hair. Niall settles on glaring at Louis when he tries to say goodbye until he feels soft kissing being pressed under his ear and down his neck. Niall’s face softens and he leans into Zayn, scrunching the hand that’s curled up in his shirt. Louis just gags and retreats from the room as Niall exclaims, “Yeah, you better run!”

 

Niall lets himself into Zayn’s house the next day, greeting Zayn’s mom and sisters since they’re home from school on Saturday’s. Niall gives a kiss on the cheek to Zayn’s mom and younger sister Safaa. Then, fistbumps Zayn’s other sister, Waliyha. “Hello, my favorite Malik. Is Zayn up in his room?”

“No, he’s in the kitchen,” she says as she taps away on her phone before walking into the livingroom. “Leftovers are on the counter!” she calls last second. Niall rubs his stomach and heads over to the kitchen, excited to eat food and see his boy. It’s a win-win situation. 

“Lover?” Niall says in a sing-song voice as he enters the kitchen. His smile is quickly replaced into a hurt face as he walks in on Zayn and Louis 3 seconds away from kissing. Niall takes in the scene of Louis leaning in close with puckered lips, eyes closed. Niall actually feels properly hurt as he takes a step back away from his friends, shaking his head in disbelief “What- what the actual fuck?”

Louis and Zayn jerk away from each other at the sudden interruption and Niall quickly decides in his head that he will turn and run away forever instead of viciously pouring leftovers on Zayn’s head. Louis coughs awkwardly and waves at Niall with a hesitant smile.

Zayn beams when he sees that it’s Niall, but immediately is concerned when he notices Niall’s face was laced with hurt. Niall stays in his place when Zayn comes over and stands right in front of him, his eyes trained onto the ground until Zayn puts his hands on both of Niall’s cheeks and kisses his nose with a soft, “Hey, you.”

Niall is still at lost for words and he looks past Zayn at Louis before meeting Zayn’s eyes again. “I...I thought it was a pretend relationship. You said- you wouldn’t-” and Zayn must have realized why Niall looked so hurt at the moment because Zayn cuts him off with immediate reassurance.

“Don’t worry, baby. We weren’t,” Zayn lowers his voice so that only Niall can hear, “I would never."

Niall feels relief rush over him and he feels silly for even thinking that Zayn would actually kiss Louis. The tension slowly leaks out of Niall as he steps closer to nudge his nose into Zayn's neck. 

In the background, Niall hears Louis say "Told you, Zayn. You gotta keep that boy on a leash. One day he’ll attack me out of jealously!" Zayn muffles a laugh into Niall's hair. 

"You weren’t gonna actually kiss him right?" Niall asks suspiciously. 

Zayn pull away slightly to wiggle his eyebrows teasingly at Niall. "Why do you even care? You don’t even like me." Niall gasps and furrows his eyebrows in confusion. Where did Zayn get that stupid idea?

"Who told you that?" 

"Louis." Zayn states as he walks him and Niall over to where Louis was standing. Niall vaguely remembers texting Louis last night after Niall and Zayn... well. 

"Why would you tell him that?"

Louis just looks at him nonchalantly as he takes a sip of some boxed apple juice. "What? Is it not true? I mean, you wouldn’t tell me any obvious lies would you?" Niall shoots daggers at him and unlatches himself from Zayn to get himself some juice from the fridge.

"Well you don’t just go around telling people that other people don’t like them," Niall jabs the straw into the box angrily and glares at the two boys, "and you don’t go around kissing people who are only your fake boyfriend, so what the fuck did I walk in on?" Niall looks from Louis to Zayn with an accusing stare, trying to look intimidating while also enjoying his drink.

Zayn grins and pokes Niall's sides while Louis shakes his head. "Aww, jealous," Zayn teases. Louis flanks Niall's other side and chooses to poke at Niall's face. Both boys poke and prod at some part of Niall, enjoying the way the boy's face was darkening with an obvious blush. 

Really, it's not fair because it's two against one and Niall feels especially embarrassed. "Fuck off, guys. You two are gross," Niall mumbles, finally ducking away from their hands, "And stop making out in the kitchen! People eat here, you know," Niall chews on his straw and crunches the box when he empties the juice pouch, "Does your mother know you're sneakily kissing boys?" 

Louis rests his chin on the counter, propping his face up, and gives Niall an unimpressed look. "It's not like it's the first time Zayn has kissed a boy in this exact spot." 

Niall rolls his eyes and scopes the rest of the kitchen for the leftovers.

Louis distractedly stabs his plastic straw through his empty juice box while he explains, “We were just practicing to make Harry even more jealous.”

“Ah, glad you’re finally admitting that this whole thing is all for Haz” Niall smirks as he pops open the lid of leftover pasta.

Louis huffs and crosses his arms defiantly “You can go take your precious leftovers and shove ‘em up your ass. Then you can leave, okay?” 

Niall blows a kiss to Louis then jumps onto the counter, making a appreciative noise when Zayn kindly hands him a fork. He reaches out to wrap his legs around Zayn’s lower back to pull him in before he get get too far. “Wanna bite?”

Zayn gladly opens his mouth for Niall to feed him as he curled an arm around Niall’s waist, leaning up to peck his nose making Niall beam.

Louis dramatically clears his throat, popping his head in between the two boys. “Uh, no no no. Niall! Me and Zayn have some serious practicing to do and you,” Louis pinched Niall’s cheek then tugged Zayn away, “are a major distraction to Zayn’s education.” Niall isn’t even sure if he just processed what Louis said because his gaze is transfixed on Zayn who moved back to raise the fork up to Niall’s mouth with another bite of pasta. Then Zayn is pressing kisses to Niall's cheek for no reason and Niall vaguely wonders how Louis manages to cope with hanging with them without Harry by his side. 

“Nialler, it’s a fake kiss our lips aren’t even going to touch, I promise.” Louis drums his fingers on the counter impatiently and Niall points an accusing fork at the two other boys.

“I really don’t think your mouths should be anywhere near each other,” Niall takes one look at Zayn and suddenly his throat is dry because Zayn is looking at him with that stupid smug smirk (which is very attractive indeed). Niall settles on pouting at Zayn as the older boy approaches him. He brushes his fingers under Niall’s chin before pressing slow kisses on both of his cheeks to soothe Niall’s grumpy demeanor. 

“Okay, sunshine. If that’s what you want,” and Zayn’s voice is as soft as his kisses so Niall kinda melts inside. At least he’s not kissing Louis. 

Louis makes a retching noises in the background and Niall shifts his gaze back towards him. “Ugh, Zayn. You are the worst fake boyfriend ever,” Louis has his hand cupped over his hip like some sort of pissed off girlfriend.

The hands on Niall’s hips pull him down and off the counter and then his face is pushed into the warm skin of Zayn’s neck. Niall sighs happily and leans into him. “Don’t kiss him, Zaynie”

“Why? You only want me to kiss you?” (“You two really are sickening” Louis rolls his eyes) Niall’s face heats up. “Is that it? Greedy boy” Zayn coos at him and ruffles his hair obnoxiously, a habit that all the boys' have gained over the years.

“I can’t believe that my fake boyfriend is falling for another guy,” Louis says as he mindlessly scrolls through his phone. He looks up at the two with an accusing glare. “This is cheating, you know that Zayn?”

Zayn looks like he’s about to argue, Niall can see it in his eyes, when a loud gurgling noise erupts from the blonde boy’s stomach. Zayn looks down at him with adoring eyes and softly nudges his tummy after pressing one last kiss to his neck. 

“You wanna go eat out? I bet leftovers won’t be enough.” Niall bets that he can probably convince Zayn’s sisters to make him food. Or Zayn’s mom. Or Zayn’s entire family. But, Niall did eat here just last night and Chinese food does sound delightful right now, so he agrees. 

“Great! Harry is at Paseo with Perrie,” Louis narrows his eyes at his phone and Niall thinks that Louis might throw it like that time he got drunk at a party and broke Liam’s earphones by using it as a lasso. Louis looks at a snapchat of Perrie and Harry in a sandwich shop like it’s burning his hand through the screen. “Let’s go test of the fake boyfriend thing. C’mon Zayner.” Louis makes a move to grab Zayn’s arm and Niall clings onto Zayn’s waist even tighter.

“Noooo,” Niall whines, bunching up the bottom of Zayn’s black hoodie in his fists, “Stay with me. We can go to Panda Express and I’m better and I’m cooler and you like me the bestest.”

Zayn runs his fingers through Niall’s hair, know ing that it is his ultimate weakness, and grins when Niall goes back to relaxing against him. “You know you’re my number one, babes,” Zayn’s voice changes into a fake-whisper, loud enough that Louis can hear “Plus, Harry and Louis are totally going to get together.” The two boys turn to smirk at Louis.

Said boy looks like he is politely choosing to ignore whatever Zayn just said in favor of angrily swiping through some snapchat stories. Right now he’s glaring at a picture of Liam’s dog playing in a pile of leaves.

After another convincing kiss to the cheek, the blonde boy finally gives in with a huff and decides to jump onto Louis’ back announcing “Tomlinson you better buy me the best goddamn sandwich ever invented.”

_____________________

They’re in the car and Zayn is sitting in the back with Niall of course.

“This is why I don’t hang out with you two,” Louis whines from his place in the driver's seat, “I always third wheel and it’s unfair.” 

“Oh shut up, Lou. You’ll see Harry in a minute,” Zayn leans forward to stroke Louis’ cheek before settling back next to Niall with an arm snug against his shoulder.

Niall seems delightfully preoccupied giggling at some meme and he’s so cute that Zayn really can’t help but train his fond gaze at the other boy. Niall senses Zayn’s stare and he just beams back at him before properly nuzzling his face comfortably against Zayn’s neck. 

Louis parks into the parking lot after a minute and pulls the keys out of the ignition. “Oi, Zayn. Come on, put on your boyfriend face,” he turns to glance at the two, not surprised when he sees Zayn smiling at Niall with a goofy grin. “Boyfriend face at me. You can boyfriend face Niall right after we finish here, okay?”

Niall aims a glare at Louis direction while he reluctantly untangles himself from Zayn. When all the boys are out of the car, Niall hears Louis rambling to himself as he stressfully scrolls through his phone.

“What if he left, what if he’s not there anymore. Should I call him to ask him where he is… or would that be obsessive. I mean, I don’t like him or anything I just want to know where he is. Stupid Perrie.”

“Chill out, mate. He’s probably still in there,” Niall tells him as Zayn turns Niall back to face him. He gently brings a hand up to sweep Niall’s messy hair out of his face all while sporting a soft smile only reserved for Niall. 

“How are you supposed to know that. He hasn’t even posted on snapchat since 20 minutes ago.”

Niall feels his face pink up at Zayn’s light touches and he tugs at the sleeve of Zayn’s sweater, looking up at him with a question in his eyes that he already knows the answer to. 

Zayn just sighs loudly and pulls the sweater over his head. Niall licks his lips at the sliver of skin exposed when his shirt is pushed up and presses his thumb into the skin of Zayn’s hip, smiling cheekily when he hears Zayn yelp in surprise. 

“Keep your hands to yourself, mister,” Zayn replies playfully before smothering Niall into his sweater, grinning widely when Niall’s messy head of hair reappears under the slightly-too-big hood. He pulls the strings, trapping Niall inside and laugh loudly before pulling Niall in by the waist to kiss the top of his head.

“Yes! I see him! He’s in there. Look at his stupid smile. Okay, Zayner! Just like we practiced!” Louis exclaims loudly from where he’s pressed up against the window of the restaurant. 

“Love you,” Zayn mumbles, finally freeing a whining Niall from where he was stuck in hood.

“Love you, too, Z,” Niall replies with a soft smile. 

“You two are hopeless,” Louis cuts in, a small smile lingering on his face nevertheless. “Malik, get off your boy for two seconds so I can pretend to date you.” He moves Zayn’s arm to sling around his shoulder, sticking his tongue out at Niall’s distraught looking face. 

“Thank you for letting me borrow your boyfriend, Neil,” Louis gives him a toothy grin and kisses him on the cheek obnoxiously, ignoring the warning glare from Zayn.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Niall crosses his arms looking grumpy and adorable and small in Zayn’s sweater and Zayn just wants to squish him.

Instead, he kisses Niall’s other cheek before Niall stomps off inside the sandwich place. “Stop being grumpy!” 

Niall catches a glimpse of Zayn and Louis’ intertwined hands and he scoffs before quickly spotting Harry in the booth across the room. He’s not that hard to find considering he has a bright red band tied around his short hair of curls. Shuffling over to where Harry is describing a story with a need to make huge hand gestures, Niall plops down next to Perrie with a huff and immediately grabs Harry’s half-finished sandwich. 

Harry just smiles widely at him and leans across the table to ruffle his hair with a “Hi, Nialler!”. Perrie places a swift kiss to his cheek in greeting.

“Haz, Pez. Hear the GREAT news yet?” Niall says sarcastically as he picks the onions out of the sandwich. Zayn would never put onions in his sandwiches. Niall thinks about putting the onions in Harry’s soda. 

Harry cocks his head in confusion as Perrie kindly gives Niall a napkin to collect the onions instead of stacking it on the lid of Harry’s drink. Niall can hear Harry start a reply until his words get cut short. 

“OH, did not see you there, Harold.” Louis’ voice rings out loudly. Even though Niall isn’t directly looking at him, he can tell Louis has a determined smirk on his face. Niall rolls his eyes and gazes up at Zayn with a glum expression. Zayn gives him a reassuring smile and puckers his lips in a matching pout.

Harry looks equally confusion and in shock and is just staring at their hands which must be the reaction that Louis was aiming for because he continues on with the act. Niall hears Perrie giggling quietly next to him. “Oh, yes, what is this?” he lifts up their joined hands with such pride that Zayn rolls his eyes. “Oh, yes! We are, in fact, dating.” Niall sinks lower into the booth and focuses on tearing a poor napkin into very small shreds.

“You see,” Louis wraps Zayn’s arm around his own shoulder and puts a hand on his chest like he did in Zayn’s bedroom the other night. Niall glares daggers at Louis and buries himself further into Zayn’s sweater, tugging the hood over his head. Perrie doesn’t even attempt to stifle her laugh anymore and she rubs Niall’s back cooing softly at him.

“Louis, what are you-”

“What, Harold?? What is that? Is that jealousy I sense? Jealous that I get to kiss this hunk of meat whenever I please?” Louis interjects loudly. The cashier at the front does not seem impressed with Louis’ actions whatsoever, but Niall is squinting his eyes at Louis’ recent statement.

He immediately sits up in his seat and throws some of the shredded napkins pieces into Louis’ hair. “Watch yourself, Tomlinson.” 

“How did Niall even agree to do this?” Perrie says in between her tears of laughter. Harry starts to chuckle along as well. Louis is fuming at this point, and being the dramatic ass he is, he decides at this moment that he will indeed go big or go home.

“What? How dare you! Me and Zayn kiss all the time!” With puckered lips, he grabs a fistful of Zayn’s shirt and starts to swiftly pull him down, catching Zayn off guard. 

Niall springs out of his seat and rips Louis’ hold of Zayn, pushing the boy behind him possessively. “You said there would be no kissing! I did not allow this type of behavior!” Niall rants as he dumps the rest of the napkin shreddings over his hair. Louis splutters.

Perrie doesn’t seem like she is breathing properly right now and Zayn is trying really hard to not watch Niall with a soft, affectionate stare. 

“Niall, you RUINED it! I can’t believe-” Louis is then pulled into Harry’s lap so suddenly that the napkin pieces in his hair fly off and land around Harry looking like snow. In some weird, random, mixed-up way, it looks kind of romantic. 

Niall watches as Harry shushes Louis gently and Louis visibly relaxes and wraps his arms around Harry’s neck with a bright grin that Niall has seen since Freshman Year. 

He pouts when he feels arms snake around his hips and Niall slumps back down into the booth with his arms crossed and face turned away from Zayn. “I don’t want to talk to you,” says Niall as Zayn sits down so close to Niall that Zayn might as well be on his lap.

“C’moooooooon. You know I wasn’t going to kiss him,” No response from Niall. “You really think I was gonna kiss him?” Zayn laughs and pokes at Niall’s side then wraps an arm around his shoulder to keep him from moving away. 

“We’ll you sure would’ve kissed him if I didn’t say anything!” Niall huffs and resists the urge to sink into Zayn’s side when Zayn’s nose brushes against his cheek while he snickers in his ear.

“You’re actually mad. My jealous boy,” Niall sighs and chances a glance at Zayn which is kind of a big mistake because Zayn is looking at him with those soft, soft, soft eyes. “Come here, sunshine.”

And Niall give in. Only slightly. Only because Zayn has his hand in Niall’s hair to pet him into submission and Niall has his head on Zayn’s shoulder and okay. Fine. Niall likes his hair being pet. 

“Everyone look at my jealous boy. Isn’t he cute?” Louis and Harry break out of their conversation to give the two boys twin smirks and Niall only blushes. Then there’s the sound of a camera shutter and when Niall turns he finds Perrie snapchatting not only cuddly Zayn and Niall, but a Harry and Louis who are probably 3 seconds from making out.

________________________________________

Perries laughs booms throughout the restaurant and Niall is afraid that the banging on the table will tip over somebody’s drink. He accepts the fry that Zayn feeds him as Perrie is exclaiming “Who in the fuck told you that Harry and me were dating?”

Louis whips his head to narrow his eyes at Harry, but before he can say anything Harry is already talking “I see that someone was jealous-”

“I’m not jealous!”

“-but did you actually think you could get me jealous with Zayn?” Niall perks up from his spot on Zayn’s shoulder and pats Zayn’s chest defensively.

“Hey, what’s wrong with Zayn. He’s the best person ever!” Niall states. 

Zayn’s eyes crinkle cutely as he squeezes Niall’s shoulder and kisses the top of his head sweetly. “Aw, thank you, sunshiiine.” The two boys are then pelted by a crumpled up napkin (courtesy of Louis). 

“Exactly my point,” Harry turns back to Louis with an amused smile. “Niall and Zayn are all over each other, like, all the tie. Did you expect me to believe for a second that you and Zayn were dating? Niall would, like, eat Louis’ head off or something.”

“I will neither confirm, nor deny this statement.” Niall claims. He tilts his head closer to Zayn’s ear to whisper something as Perrie, Louis, and Harry go off on another conversation. “You weren’t gonna do it right?”

He feels Zayn’s ankle link with his foot underneath the table and Zayn whispers back, “Of course not, baby. Forgive me now?”

“Hm, no.” Niall teases.

Zayn leans in and nibbles his ear before kissing down to suck gently at his neck. Niall shivers and grips Zayn’s thigh. “How about now?”

“For fuck’s sake! Get a room.” Perrie yells and then napkins are being rained around the two of them. Zayn pulls away with one more kiss to the cheek and throws some of napkins back at Harry. The staff is going to hate them if they don’t clean up their mess. 

Nonetheless, Niall sighs happily and relaxes into Zayn’s side while curling an arm around Zayn’s waist. 

“You two are so gross.” Louis jokes the same time Zayn whispers “Stay at my house tonight.” Of course, Niall was already planning to do that anyways.

“Did I hear sleepover! Harold, Perrie, we’re all going to Zayn’s house!” 

Niall shoots a glare at Louis. He’s had an overload of Louis today and no way is he sharing today. “No. Mine.”

Then Niall’s hood is suddenly being yanked up and then he’s met with a familiar pair of lips against his and Niall ignores Harry’s wolf whistles and Louis’ good-hearted complaints, and the flash of Perrie’s camera and just scrunches his fists in Zayn’s shirt and kisses him harder.

“You can keep him.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey pal, follow my new [tumblr](https://homiehoran.tumblr.com/) if you want. We can be friends. Also leave some comments if you want. Fun stuff. Fun stuff. Thank for the reads. 
> 
> Ziall makes my heart melt ok bye.
> 
> -Anne


End file.
